CAL/GAL Micro Battle Update – Skirmish in Reitsato

With the increased aggressiveness of the GalMil in Black Rise, via offensive plexing and flipping systems, the Squids have begun to increase their patrols within the region. With Kadama under GalMil control, the attention of the Gallente has now turned to Reitsato. This is an ongoing conflict between the two warring factions for warzone control. On one side, you have the Squids trying to climb out of the borders of their tier two status, and on the other hand, you have the Gallente Militia focusing on maintaining control of their current systems to comfortably maintain their tier three status. In the middle of this conflict are two faction warfare powerhouses within the region; Black Fox Marauders and Brave Newbies Inc.

Shortly after midnight on November 19th, 2015, Eve game time, an organized Squid Rupture fleet was reported by GalMil forces in systems neighboring Reitsato. The Brave fleet patrolled the region, presenting a great show of force in numbers and on the directional scanner. Black Fox members were in Tama, fighting off a RvB fleet when they were notified of the Brave fleet. Black Fox CEO and FC, Roy Henry, instructed his fleet to return to Nisuwa and reship for a possible engagement with the Brave Rupture fleet. With only a handful of active members present at the time, Black Fox was only able to scrounge up a couple of Confessors, two Stilettos, a Jackdaw, and a Burst. The Rupture fleet was over double the numbers of the Black Fox fleet, sporting eight Ruptures, two Vigils, an Incursus, Malediction, and a Keres. The odds were against the Marauders, but they pressed on to the battle.

At approximately 0153 the Rupture gang was reported on the Reitsato gate in Kedama by a Black Fox Harpy pilot. Roy Henry quickly leaped his fleet into action, despite the difference in numbers. Confessors were ordered to warp in at fifty kilometers while the interceptors were instructed to warp to thirty kilometers. All parties sat ready for the skirmish and the Kedama gate in Reitsato began to flash, and the number of squids in local began to rise. The Brave jump cloaks were stripped away, and the battle ensued. The Brave Ruptures balled up as their fast tackle and Vigils spread out, seeking out their first prey. Roy Henry ordered his fleet into action, calling out primary and ensuring tackle was spread out. And thus, the costly and deadly waltz of destruction began.

First blood of the skirmish went to Black Fox. A Squid Keres was tackled by one of the Black Fox Stilettos and quickly burned down by the Confessors and Jackdaw. However, shortly after, the score was tied when the Brave Malediction got tackle on one of the Black Fox Stilettos, which the artillery fit Ruptures made quick work of. Seconds later, Roy and his other two tactical destroyer pilots primaried one of the Vigils, putting Black Fox back on top. The remaining Stiletto acquired tackle on its biggest threat, the Malediction. Again, the three tactical destroyers made quick work of the interceptor. By this time, the Brave Ruptures had gotten in range of the marauding tactical destroyers, who were forced to bounce out of the fight under the onslaught of the Ruptures’ artillery guns. The Black Fox Stiletto remained in the fight, orbiting at range, keeping the speed up to about 3800 m/s and using long point to keep tackle on the Squid fleet. The Rupture fleet responded with roughly fifteen light drones, which they sent after the Stiletto. Roy and his destroyers landed in just enough time to shoot the drones off the Stiletto, inevitably saving his ship. The second Vigil was called as primary and quickly taken out. The Ruptures claimed the second kill, this time landing an alpha strike on the Black Fox Burst. With the Brave support ships eliminated, the Black Fox fleet turned their sights on their first Rupture. The Stiletto warp disrupted the first Rupture on his list and called primary over comms. The Squids warped to a tactical above the gate, leaving their fleet member alone. His shields held briefly, but only just, and the Black Foxes claimed their first Rupture kill of the night. The Squids warped back to the gate at range and forced the tactical destroyers off the grid again. Another flight of light drones was launched at the remaining Stiletto, and again Roy landed in time to shoot them off him. A Black Fox Republic Fleet Firetail join the fight in enough time to assist with the second Rupture kill. At the same time, Brave reinforcements arrive in system, another Vigil and Keres, and tackled the unfortunate Firetail, who was taken out in quick succession. Shortly after, the Black Fox Jackdaw returned to the battle, this time in a Heretic. The primary was called on the Brave Incursus, who was becoming an increasing threat to the remaining Stiletto, and the three Black Fox destroyers did what they do best. By now the Stiletto was being harassed by the Keres and its highly effective remote sensor dampeners. Without waiting for tackle, Roy, and this fellow Confessor primaried the Keres and sent the pilot to his pod. Realizing their dilemma, the Brave fleet began to de-aggress in preparation for the jump. The Black Fox pilots were still shooting away at their enemy as they Squids jumped through the gate into Kedama. Roy instructed his interceptors and any available fast tackle to pursue the Brave fleet as soon as their aggression timers were gone. The Black Foxes did as ordered and managed to catch one more Rupture in Hirri.

Roy Henry himself probably summed up the engagement best when he said “I don’t always take on a Rupture fleet with a Stiletto and some tactical destroyers, but when I do…” Both FC’s where experienced capsuleers, and both fleets were fit for optimal effectiveness, but the Black Foxes gained the upper hand through the knowledge and experience displayed by Roy Henry during the battle. We hear time after time about these large scale engagements in null sec with Goonswarm and its allies dominating the battlefield. The Goonswarm warfare mentality is to blob its enemies with bigger ships and bigger numbers. Roy Henry has proved that through superior tactics, discipline, and leadership, a larger fleet can be engaged and defeated, and with minimal losses. For those keeping score at home, Black Foxes lost one interceptor, and two frigates during the engagement, compared to Brave, who lost two electronic attack frigates, an interceptor, three frigates, and three Ruptures. Roy Henry knew that the Rupture’s limited targeting range was its downfall, and used that weakness against the Squid fleet in a stunning display of skirmish warfare. It was one hell of a skirmish engagement, and I would like to thank all parties involved in the event personally.

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About ScorpCH

Nullsec and Lowsec PvP player. Eve Online member since August of 2008. No love for the Goons. Builds and repairs PC's a hobby and has over 10 years of MMO experience across multiple titles. Prefers small gang and frigate size PvP engagements over larger fleets.

Also interesting is the fact that the two ruptures tackled and lost in the initial engagement were both members of “leadership”, hinting towards the (not cool) tendency to headshot that has been all too common when we have fought GalMil groups. In a strategic fight I can kind of understand, but in small skirmishes why even bother? It just makes the fight end before it has begun.

Sorry, is this a battle report or a crappy propaganda puff piece designed to inflate your egos? I’m not sure why else you’d completely neglect to mention the fact that two of your four Confessors got stomped on, and that you had two other frigates killed.

You miss the main issue with arty Ruptures against smaller ships, which is tracking speed, not targeting range. Hence why you targeted our Vigils. Experienced capsuleers on both sides? Try the Brave FC’s first time flying in, let alone leading, a Rupture fleet. And I’d hardly call losing a couple of T1 cruisers and a frigs a downfall. It was for sure a fun fight, but it deserves a fair retelling.

Here’s the AAR from the Brave side, written as an internal after action report on their forums a couple of days after this fight went down. It was never intended to be publicized it for wider audiences, as nobody gives a crap about some frigs and dessies facing off against T1 cruisers, but this shill of an article on a supposed “news” website distorts the actual events so significantly that it warranted publishing.

There are a few parts where it says “we killed this ship” or whatever. On the forums the text is linked to the killmails but I CBA to re-link everything. The battle report linked above captures everything.

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One of our Rupture buddies had to leave fleet, but he was able to give us some valuable intel at the expense of his ship. There was apparently a 7-man battlecruiser-focused gang that received intel about our gang moving through and was actively trying to hunt us down. Previously, I was planning to take our fleet through the southern part of the warzone, but killing more battlecruisers was too juicy to pass up. We doubled back and went into Tama again, where we volleyed an oddly-fit Crucifier at 35km while waiting on gate. I fucking love artillery.

We had Vigils scout ahead (okay, they really just wanted to drop off loot) and we eventually got a location on the gang. They had shipped down into various T1 and T2 frigates, as well as T3 destroyers. I was actually more worried about this, because medium artillery has a tough time tracking smaller ships. We would have to be on point with our shooting. We jumped from Kedama into Reitsato, where the gang was sitting at various distances, though most under 40km. Thus began the craziest fight I had ever FC’d.

We loaded Titanium Sabot, which gives a 20% bonus to tracking. The orders were simple. On my mark: Decloak, align straight down and start following my broadcasts.

First up was a Tristan that was sitting near us. This guy is a GalMil FC and a cocky bastard, and I took great pleasure in having our fleet remove him from existence. He also has a nasty habit of headshotting FCs/Brave leadership when fights don’t really matter (like this one), which is why Extrems and Cornak were virtually instantly locked down by his tackle. I am all about doing whatever needs to be done on stratops, but why headshot FCs in fun fights? It removes fun from the fight. So we removed him from the fight before that could happen. Luckily I was not important enough to register on his radar. Which reminds me… COME AT ME YOU GALMIL SPY FUCKS – I AIN’T AFRAID. YOU HEADSHOT? YOU GET HEADSHOT. IT’S THAT SIMPLE.

The enemy fleet started up their MWDs and started buzzing around us, quickly plunging the situation into a chaotic and intense battle. Our tackle frigates took flight and began picking their own individual targets to duel. Our Vigil pilots did very well here and very smartly put some distance between themselves and the enemy fleet while keeping up the target painting on my broadcasts. The key with artillery weapons in general is to wait until the bad guys have a low angular velocity, which makes it easier for turrets to track. I was counting on the combination of that and our target painting frigates to start deleting enemy ships one volley at a time.

The enemy fleet responded by very quickly taking down our Keres before he could pull range. We didn’t let up our assault. The Ruptures managed to pop this Stiletto who was burning away from us in a straight line. A bad choice on his part. They took down a friendly Vigil who wasn’t far enough away yet. We killed this Confessor who turned his ship around to burn back into us while he was still in our range, dropping his transversal and angular velocity relative to ours to near 0, a perfect target. We had our only interceptor and another Vigil killed soon after. We popped this Burst that had been repping some of the targets who managed to live through our volleys by burning range. At this point, many of their fleet members were realizing that they need to stay out of our killzone, lest we destroy them in a single volley. Many pulled between 50km and 90km range. We were also losing range on them at this point from having been burning down for so long, which is why I warped us to a tac below the gate. The great Cornak Firefist had been killed at this point, and Extrems was tackled (remember what I said about headshotting?). With us 200km off the gate, many of their fleet were burning back in to try to whore on the kill. We weren’t going to have any of that, so we warped in on the gate at 0 and began attacking again. We popped this Atron who only brought an afterburner to try to get away. Their 3 remaining Confessors were frantically trying to get away, so much so they forgot to keep up transversal. One of them paid the price for it in an incredible volley that melted him from full HP to 0. Extrems was down at this point, though I didn’t realize it, and most of the enemy fleet had pulled range again. The Stiletto from earlier had reshipped into a Firetail, but didn’t learn his lesson from before and tried burning away from us in a straight line. BAD IDEA FRIEND. I didn’t realize that the Keres pilot who had died had reshipped into another Keres, and that he died again. Sorry bro.

There was only one Stiletto at this point that continued to burn out of range and dive in on us to land tackle. He was smart about keeping up his angular velocity up and we weren’t able to hit him, despite our best attempts. I decided to make the call to have frigates warp out while the Ruptures deaggress and burn back to gate. The Stiletto was able to land a point on our last tackle frigate, signing his death warrant. It was maybe 20 seconds after we stopped attacking that the enemy fleet realized we were no longer shooting them. They burned in with a vengeance, putting all DPS on Ada Kilndown in his Rupture. They were going all in to get one more kill. We were lucky in that many of them started burning at more than 100km off. We all lost aggression and jumped back into Kedama just as Ada entered 15% structure. That was pretty much as close as you could get. Here’s the battle report for that fight(ISK POSITIVE WHAT WHAT).

But we weren’t out of the woods yet. With most of our support wing gone, we needed to evac back to Pavanakka.

Here’s a link to the FW map to follow along. We landed on the Hirri gate in Kedama just as local started spiking with their fleet coming through. The enemy was giving chase, and they were much faster than us. We needed to go seven jumps and they were hot on our tail. Just as we started jumping into Pynekastoh from Hirri, the enemy Stiletto was landing on grid, with the rest of their fleet in local. No bueno. I had mere seconds to figure out how to get in front of this Stiletto, because surely he would be ahead of us if we warped to the Hikkoken gate. I decided to feint by warping the fleet to the Rakapas gate at 0 instead of Hikkoken. The Stiletto actually decloaked before we entered warp, but we all made it out before he could point us. When we landed on the Rakapas gate, he was already there. I waited for a second on land and called for the fleet to hold on gate. We might have to jump, but I wanted to see if we could bait the Stiletto into doing just that. Luckily, he took the bait and jumped into Rakapas, even though none of us had done so. We warped out to Hikkoken, where Siege Torpedo was waiting with a Caracal that would have been perfect for blapping any frigs following us. We jumped into Hikkoken and warped to a gate tactical, anticipating that they enemy fleet would follow. They apparently elected not to, and our fleet made it home free. WOOT!

That Rupture fight was such a crazy engagement. The fight itself lasted longer than 10 minutes, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time while trying to maintain a relatively cool demeanor. Everyone did such a great job during both the battleship engagement in Sujarento and in the Reitsato engagement. Both fights could have ended up with a fleet wipe, but because everyone followed orders, we made it out bruised, but on top (at least as far as kills, ISK and fun go). Mad props to everyone who participated in the fleet.

I don’t know why, but such a noble website which call itself “factionwarfare” missed completely, that Gallente Militia evicted Brave Newbies from Pavanakka in a 3-days push, with thousands of kills done…damn GalMil is soooo stronk.

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